Welcome to Astronomer in Shanghai! Thank you for following my blog and for your interest in my life and adventures in Shanghai! As covid-19 persists in the US and around the world, and you are (hopefully) continuing to remain vigilant, avoiding large gatherings, and social distancing, I hope that you are all staying safe and healthy and that my blog highlights what the world looks like once recovery begins. As things improve, I hope you enjoy small gatherings with friends and family and other outdoor activities. I’m sure you’ll find these interactions meaningful and enjoyable as I have.
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Life in Shanghai
I hope that this latest entry continues to find all of you safe and healthy. Hopefully, you and your families are continuing to get vaccinated (or have been) and you have been continuing to take precautions as things start to return to normal. For those of you who are vaccinated, I hope that you’re enjoying small gatherings with loved ones and time outside!
I don’t usually talk about sports (though I am a huge sports fan). However, I wanted to share a sports story with you that brought a huge smile to my face. I am a longtime Utah Jazz fan. Throughout the course of this NBA season, the Utah Jazz new ownership group (led by Ryan and Ashley Smith — the cofounder of Qualtrics) pledged a 4 year scholarship to a student from an under-represented minority to attend a university in Utah. For those of you who haven’t been following, the Jazz had the best record in the NBA and won 52 games (55 including pre-season). That means the Jazz will be sponsoring the college education for at least 55 students. This week, the Jazz shared a truly heartwarming video of the Jazz players letting the first 30 students know they had received the scholarship. As a lifelong Jazz fan, I couldn’t be more proud to see my team support the educational dreams of so many students. As someone who’s spent a lot of time this past year learning about and discussing the systemic inequalities that exist within the US I am extremely proud to support the Jazz! While these scholarships won’t solve all the problems, it’s important for those with means to give back and help others achieve their dreams and successes. I look forward to cheering Rudy Gobert, Donovan Mitchell, and the rest of the Jazz on throughout the playoffs as they hopefully continue to rack up the wins and the scholarships!
In terms of covid-19, the situation appears to continue to be stable in Shanghai. In total, there are 63 active cases in Shanghai (all imported) with a recovery rate of 96.61%. In Beijing, there are only 3 cases with a recovery rate of 98.86%. For China as a whole, there are 3098 cases (~2700 in Taiwan) and the recovery rate is 92.53%. These are the numbers provided by the Chinese government (why Taiwan is included).
Before I talk about my own Astronomy, I wanted to comment on the remarkable achievement of the Chinese Zhurong rover landing on Mars last Saturday! Zhurong is the first rover that China has ever sent to Mars (it joins the US’s Perseverance on Mars) and is the first probe China has ever landed on another planet! To just give you some basic info, it was launched in Hainan (Southern China) last July and was carried on the Tianwen-1 rocket. Zhurong will be carrying out a 90 day exploration mission of Mars. It is operated remotely. There was a lot of excitement about the landing. I saw stories and messages posted on WeChat from many of my colleagues (despite the fact that none of us study Mars) as well as some of my Chinese friends (non-Astronomers). I’m excited to hear what we will learn from Zhurong (and Perseverance) about Mars! For those of you who are curious, Tianwen means Questions to Heaven and Zhurong is an ancient god of fire from Chinese mythology.
In terms of my own research, this was sadly a more frustrating week. I got more comments from the Final reviewer for my DES paper, so it will probably be a few weeks before I’m able to submit the paper for publication, which is very frustrating since additional comments at this stage were not expected (or typical). However, with help from my co-authors I think we’ll determine the best path forward. In terms of my other projects, I’m currently generating a new version of my mock after solving one of the bugs in my original generation, which is good. Hopefully, that will yield some interesting results soon. Additionally, I have some very interesting plots for our analysis on halo mass proxies, which I think should result in a really interesting paper! Lastly, I was able to work out the bugs in my ICL code, so now my results are making a bit more sense. 🙂
As you can likely tell, this was a very research heavy week. As I’ve mentioned in the past, Shanghai is very close to summer. It wasn’t quite as hot this week, but it was still quite humid. As a result, I only went for two runs this week. However, to supplement my running, I started going to F45 (a gym that specializes in 45 minutes HIIT training exercise classes that many of my friends go to). This way, I’m still exercising when the weather isn’t great!
Even though the weather was a bit of a mixed bag, I still had some cool photos I wanted to share with all of you!
Though this was a very heavily work focused week, I still made some time for some fun activities! On Tuesday, my friend David and I hosted another Kehilat Shanghai Trivia night! All the categories were MAY themed. We did MAYhem, MAYors, MAYsons (May birthday’s), MAYday, and There MAY be a Connection! 🙂 I wrote the MAYors and MAYsons questions, you’ll see below! It was another really great trivia night and everyone was challenged by our questions!
On Saturday, I attended another AAPI month event. This event was a screening of two of the episodes of the Cinemax/HBO Max show Warrior (about San Francisco’s China town in the late 19th century — originally conceived by Bruce Lee). Followed by a discussion about the model minority myth (focused mostly on examples of people like Grace Lee Boggs, who defied this myth). For those of you who are unfamiliar, the model minority myth is a concept that emphasizes that minorities can succeed in the US by using very particular examples. Essentially, this idea championed East Asians (as well as Jews) as examples of minorities that are well educated, polite, and law abiding and were able to both assimilate and succeed in America. However, it is often used as a mechanism to antagonize and criticize other minorities and offer a false narrative of racial equality (that anyone can succeed). This is a topic that I’ve had a lot of conversations about and definitely something that I plan to discuss further.
The highlight of my week was on Friday night, when my friend Ha hosted a murder mystery themed birthday party! It was set in the 1920’s Chicago. While not nearly as easy for me to dress up in as the 1960s themed party I attended a few months ago (nothing’s as easy as tie-dye for me). I did my best to channel the look from Perry Mason (the HBO Max show).
Here are some photos of me with other friends at the party (many from the Kehilat Shanghai community)! Overall, it was a lot of fun both celebrating Ha and playing the murder mystery game. Emmet and I did one our freshman year at Brown, but I think it was a bit more fun this time (though I still didn’t figure out who the murderer was until we were told at the end). As you can see, many of the attendees went all out and really had fantastic costumes! It was fun for a night to escape to the Roaring 1920s! 🙂
Overall, this was a really nice week. This upcoming week will definitely be research focused as I work to address the remaining comments on my DES paper while also working on my Luminosity Function analysis. I know I’ll have some fun activities to share with you as well!
I hope that you enjoyed reading my thoughts about the Jazz scholarships (definitely watch the video) and the Zhurong rover, as well as seeing the photos from the 1920’s themed birthday party! I hope that you all have a safe and healthy week.
In peace,
Jesse
Trivia
MAYors
1). The Mayor of Casterbridge: The Life and Death of a Man of Character is an 1886 novel by this English Author, written as part of his Wessex novels.
2). In Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables, she is the adopted daughter of the Mayor of Monreuil-sur-Mer?
3). In both the Batman Earth One Graphic novels and the television show Gotham this Batman villain is the mayor of Gotham City.
4). This early popular democratic candidate for president, nicknamed Mayor Pete, was the former mayor of what city
5). This former Mayor of Paris, and Prime Minister of France, would later become President of France from 1995-2007.
6). The First Female mayor in the United States was Susanna Madora Salter, who served as Mayor of Argonia, Kansas in 1887. However, the first major metropolitan city to have a female mayor occurred in 1926, when Bertha Knight Landes was elected as Mayor of this Pacific Northwest city.
7). This rising Democratic political star surprised Democratic pollsters and constituents when she announced that she would not be running for another term as Mayor of Atlanta.
8). This current mayor of Washington D.C. was the first female mayor ever re-elected as mayor of D.C.
9). In Family Guy, this real life tv actor played himself as the Mayor of Quahog, RI
10). This, now disgraced, former mayor of New York City, turned Trump stooge, was initially elected Mayor of NYC in what year?
MAYsons (Birthdays in May)
1). Three actors who have (or will) portrayed Batman on the Big Screen were born in May. One in Batman & Robin, One in the Lego Batman Movie, and one in 2022’s The Batman. Name them.
2). Motown legend, Stevie Wonder was born on May 13th. One of his most famous song’s is a rendition of Happy Birthday, which honors this civil rights icon?
3). Super Bowl III featured 3 different quarterbacks born in May. Most famously, Joe Namath guaranteed a win for the New York Jets over the Baltimore Colts. While the Baltimore Colts had been quarterbacked by Johnny Unitas for much of that decade, Unitas suffered an injury and missed 9 games throughout the season (and did not start the Super Bowl). Instead, this quarterback, who also played for the 1972 Miami Dolphins started the game.
4). This woman, who became the youngest and first American woman to enter low-earth orbit, in 1983 was born on May 26th.
5). This award winning author of more than 200 books best known for coming of age stories set in the wilderness, including Hatchet and Winterdance was born on May 17th.
6). Prior to his success as a writer with The Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum, who was born on May 15th had a failed career writing for this other popular medium.
7). Though no longer the longest reigning British monarch, this other British queen, born on May 24th, now has the second longest reign beginning when she was just 18 years old.
8). Legendary singer-song writer and Nobel laureate Bob Dylan was also born on May 24th. However, his real name is what?
9). This Australian actress born on May 14th has had starring roles in films including the Talented Mr. Ripley, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, I’m not there, and Thor Ragnarok
10). Adele, born on May 5th sang the titular theme song in what James Bond movie?
Hi Jesse,
I’m glad that you were able to have some fun this week, despite it being a bit more of a frustrating week on the science side. I’m sorry about your difficulty with your final reviewer. As someone who’s had challenging and easy referees, the challenging ones are the worst. I’m glad you’re making good progress on your work with the mock catalogues and the ICL. I’m particularly interested in those results, especially in regard to high-z cluster evolution. I’d heard about the spike in cases in Taiwan, so I hope it doesn’t spread to mainland China. I’m glad trivia continues to be a success! I like the graffiti photos that you sent, too! The AAPI discussion surrounding Warrior and the model minorities. It’s certainly a problematic stereotype that has been used for continued discrimination. How was Warrior? I’ve been wanting to watch it, but haven’t yet. The HIIT classes sound like a good workout. I’ve been enjoying doing that kind of workout via Zeus fitness. The murder mystery party looks like a lot of fun! Your costume (and everyone else’s) looks great, too! Kerry and Sierra hosted a murder mystery party right before the shutdown, and it was a lot of fun. I figured out the killer but was promptly killed before I could confirm my suspicions. That’s really cool about the Chinese rover! It’ll be interesting if this spurs on another space race to get people to Mars. I must say, I like the more whimsical names of the rovers. Also, I’m glad you touched on the Jazz! The scholarship fund is such a great thing to do, and it makes me proud to be a Jazz fan! I’ll be rooting for them tonight! I hope you have a great week. Stay safe and healthy!
Love,
Emmet
Thanks Emmet. I appreciate the support. I’m making progress, on the ICL and mock LF, not sure it’s as fast as I’d like, but it’s good to balance a few projects at once. I’ll definitely let you know about the high-z ICL evolution (though we’re only really going out to ~ 0.8).
I agree with you about the model minority myth. Warrior was very good. I think we should watch it. However, it’s very violent (like Wu Assassins or Into the Badlands), so I don’t think Mom and Dad would like it. The HIIT workouts are definitely similar to the Zeus workouts, though sometimes more cardio focused. I think your murder mystery party was a bit more interactive, since ours was only 1 murder.
I totally agree with you about the rover and about the Jazz. Hopefully the Jazz can win the next games and have a long playoff run. Hope you stay safe and healthy.
Another very thoughtful and interesting blog, Jesse.
Sorry to hear of the issues raised about your proposed publication. That must be so very frustrating but on the other hand when it will be published there will be presumably few challenges to your methods and conclusions.
The story about the Jazz providing scholarships for under-represeted students is heart warming. I agree that such provisions don’t ever solve the bigger problems but they are ways that we all can do something until the govt and others agree to really attack the real problems that undergird our society.
Looks like we (in NY) appear to be assuming that Covid is now in the past. Lisa and I were in Lowes this morning and they seem to have “relaxed” their mask policy. No customers except Lisa and I were masked and very few staff were. YET less than 50 percent of NYorkers have been fully inoculated. Go figger.
If you can I would urge you to watch The Underground Railroad (Amazon Prime). It is based on Colson Whitehead’s novel and is a series made for TV but it is horrifically violent and so very challenging to any ideas that this country is not steeped if not saturated in racism. It is incredibly well-written and incredibly acted. Very powerful.
Take care and be safe.
Bernard.
PS . Planning on making a couple of gallons of dandelion wine and started , last week, a gallon of wild blueberry wine. And have on hand to make 4 gallons of rhubarb wine and a similar volume of elderberry wine.
Thanks Bernard. I appreciate the support. That’s a very good attitude that I’ll try to keep in mind when I get frustrated. I agree wholeheartedly with your conclusions about the Jazz scholarships.
I’m sorry to hear about the situation in New York. I didn’t realize that only 50% of NYers were vaccinated. And that sounds super frustrating that so few people are wearing masks. I hope that you and Lisa continue to stay safe and healthy.
Also, I’ll definitely add The Underground Railroad to my list of shows to watch. It sounds very thought provoking and definitely worth watching.
Dear Jesse,
I am delighted to learn about the success of the Chinese mission to Mars and about the Jazz supporting higher education. When will a nation attempt to land a person on Mars? And while there is so much needed to help the deserving attend college, this is a heart warming initiative. Go Jazz!
From my own perspective, a challenging late reviewer is always a stress. But there are reviewers like that, snd I have received them. In my field I can challenge some of the comments and respond to what seems important. The end result is always a better publication. However, the process is frustrating snd, in your case, unusual. It is great to get support from Chris and Yuan Yuan to help navigate this paper through the DES review. The end is in sight. Just keep positive and I predict great things.
I had two moving final graduation events—a tree planting to honor my student who died, and an award ceremony for Nicole, my peer mentor, who won a big award. I had to be Covid tested to attend even though I am vaccinated. I am glad I could be there to say goodbye to both. I am working on my garden now and finished a book I need to review for a journal. And I am reading more, too! And Alex and Abby’s wedding was wonderful. It was great to spend time with Pam and her family for such a happy occasion. Missed you, of course.
I look forward to seeing how I did on Trivia. Of course the Hardy question was easy for me!
Keep writing these blogs because I look forward to them each week. I predict more folks will begin to comment again soon.
I love you and miss you,
Mom
Dear Jesse,
I am delighted to learn about the success of the Chinese mission to Mars and about the Jazz supporting higher education. When will a nation attempt to land a person on Mars? And while there is so much needed to help the deserving attend college, this is a heart warming initiative. Go Jazz!
From my own perspective, a challenging late reviewer is always a stress. But there are reviewers like that, snd I have received them. In my field I can challenge some of the comments and respond to what seems important. The end result is always a better publication. However, the process is frustrating snd, in your case, unusual. It is great to get support from Chris and Yuan Yuan to help navigate this paper through the DES review. The end is in sight. Just keep positive and I predict great things.
I had two moving final graduation events—a tree planting to honor my student who died, and an award ceremony for Nicole, my peer mentor, who won a big award. I had to be Covid tested to attend even though I am vaccinated. I am glad I could be there to say goodbye to both. I am working on my garden now and finished a book I need to review for a journal. And I am reading more, too! And Alex and Abby’s wedding was wonderful. It was great to spend time with Pam and her family for such a happy occasion. Missed you, of course.
I look forward to seeing how I did on Trivia. Of course the Hardy question was easy for me!
Keep writing these blogs because I look forward to them each week. I predict more folks will begin to comment again soon.
I love you and miss you.
Love,
Mom
Thanks Mom! Elon Musk keeps saying that he wants to send a man to Mars soon. However, we currently don’t have a way to bring someone back, so there’s a big ethical dilemma. I’m glad you were similarly moved by the Jazz story.
I really appreciate your thoughts on a challenging reviewer. I’m sure it will make a better publication. It’s mostly just frustrating because this is a 3rd reviewer before publication, which feels like complete overkill. I’ll try to stay positive though.
Congratulations to your student Nicole. I’m sure you must be proud. That’s also very nice that they planted a tree in honor of your student who died.
I’m glad that you have more time to garden, read, and make jam (soon). I’m happy to hear that you enjoyed the wedding. Hope you continue to stay safe and healthy.